Small World
by aLeX24
Summary: What happens when the job starts to hit a little too close to home? CHAPTER 3 IS FINALLY UP!
1. Chapter 1

Okay, let me set something straight so you guys understand the story… Elliot's daughter Maureen did not go to Hudson University, she went to New York University in Manhattan, New York… she is 18, I don't know if that's how old she is on the show or not… and well that's about it. Enjoy! Reviews are welcomed and greatly appreciated.   :)  
  
**Small** **World  
  
**

"Hey Liv" Elliot Stabler said as he came to stand beside his partner in the hallway of Manhattan General Hospital.

"Hey, long drive huh?" She commented. It was not everyday they got call to the middle of Manhattan for a victim. 

"Yeah." He said before looking towards the room Olivia had been standing in front of.

"The victim in there?" he asked her, sticking his hands in his pockets. He was dressed in jeans a t-shirt and casual jacket. He never made the effort to dress in a suit when they got called in the middle of the night. 

"Yeah, female age eighteen found raped and beaten in a park close to the University." Olivia answered somewhat tiredly. She had just gone to bed when she got called to come to Manhattan. 

"Is she a student there?" 

"No one knows, she didn't have any ID on her and refuses to even tell what her name is"

"Have you talked to her yet?" he asked running a hand over his hair with a sigh.

"No I just got here five minutes ago, the doctors filled me in on what happened."

"What about the cops that brought her in? Are they still around?" Elliot questioned his partner.

"No, apparently a good samaritan found her and brought her here in his car" 

"Well is he still here? Maybe he's the perp," he suggested.

"No, as soon as the doctors took her into an examination room the guy left. No phone number, name or anything"

"Great" Elliot muttered. "Wonder why Manhattan SVU didn't pick this one up." He commented.

"Apparently they're so backed up that they aren't taking any more new cases for a while" Olivia answered as they opened the door to the hospital room and went in. 

Upon entering Olivia and Elliot saw a petit brunette with bruises along her jaw line, and a dark purple bruise under her right eye sitting on a gurney. She raised her head to see who entered the room and that was when the bruises in the shape of a hand, on her neck, became visible. Her wrists also had bruise around them as if someone had held her arms down and there were rips in her jeans from the pavement it seemed.

"Hello, I'm Detective Benson, this is Detective Stabler. We're just going to ask you a few questions okay?" Olivia asked bringing a chair over to the gurney so that she sat at eye level with the young woman.

"Why? I already told the doctors everything I remember" was the quiet protest. The girl eyed Elliot carefully, yet thoughtfully. Olivia just thought the girl was just being wary of her male partner.

"We just need to hear it from you personally, so that nothing is misunderstood. Okay?" 

"Fine." She responded. The girl answered shortly and to the point when asked the basic questions of where she was attacked and taken, who did it, and any other things she may have remembered. 

"So what's your name?" Olivia tried. She had avoided this question at first to get the girl comfortable with talking to her.

"Can I go to the bathroom before we continue? The doctors wanted to finish checking me before they let me go, and that was like over an hour ago" the girl asked uncomfortably, her light green eyes darting between the two detectives as she dodged the question.

"Sure" Olivia smiled and she stood up letting the girl walk to the door. 

"Umm, do you know where the washroom is?" 

"Just down the hall on the right." Elliot answered. The girl nodded and left the room with her arms wrapped protectively around her self.

Fifteen minutes later, Benson and Stabler were still waiting in the room for the centre of their newest case to return.

"I'm going to go see if she's okay," Olivia said. She went out into the hallway and weaved her way through the busy hallway to the women's washroom. Going in she was surprised to find all of the stalls empty. She hurried out into the hall and stopped the doctor she had talked to earlier about the girl. 

"Hey have you seen the rape victim my partner and I were talking to?" she asked frowning.

"She left already, said you guys told her she could go home now," he said confusedly.

"She said she was going to the bathroom" Olivia sighed as she turned and bumped into Elliot who had been listening. 

"Guess we'll have to ask around about her tomorrow" Elliot said. Olivia nodded, 

"Yeah, from what she told us I think the university rapist is back on the scene" 

"We should find a hotel, maybe get some rest before its back to work"

"Hey, you could visit Maureen while we're here" Olivia suggested, earning a smile from Elliot.

"Yeah, I'll call her in the morning and see if she wants to have lunch or something"

The next morning after having gotten the last two rooms at a small, fairly decent motel, Elliot and Olivia went to a diner for breakfast. As they finished up, Elliot called Maureen and after three rings she picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's dad" 

"Hey, what's up?"

"I'm in town and wanted to see if you wanna have lunch with your old man today"

"Sure, how about you come to my residence so I can show you around a bit and we can go eat somewhere?" The waitress came to the table with the bill. Olivia said thank you, and gave her the money due.

"Olivia's there too?" Maureen asked over the phone.

"Yeah, we're here in a case" Elliot answered honestly.

"Bring her along, I haven't seen her in ages" Maureen told him.

"Sure thing kiddo" 

"Ok see you then, bye," the teen said.

"Bye" Elliot hung up. He looked at Olivia who was looking out the window.

"Want to come to lunch with us?"

"Sure, thanks" 

Later that morning after tirelessly asking around about their AWOL rape victim, Elliot and Olivia arrived at the residence that Maureen was living in. They walked up two flights of stairs to the floor Maureen said she lived on. The teen was excited about finally introducing her dad to her roommate. Finding room 246 they knocked. The door opened revealing Maureen wearing dark jeans and a red t-shirt, her long blond hair pulled into a ponytail. 

"Hey!" she exclaimed hugging her dad and smiling at Olivia. "Come in let me show you my room!" She led them into the fairly large room that had two single beds, two desks, dressers, and one huge closet. There was a window that took up almost a whole wall letting in the sunlight.

"This is it, not much but it's cool. My roommate Gracie should be here in like two minutes, so you guys can meet her. She's really nice, a little quiet sometimes but she's great," Maureen explained pushing a strand of hair from her face. The three of them turned at the sound of the door handle turning. The door opened to reveal a girl wearing a black turtleneck sweater and faded blue jeans. Elliot and Olivia immediately recognized the telltale bruises from earlier that morning. The girl stood there in the doorway with a deer in the headlights expression plastered on her face. She went to step back into the hall, but Maureen was too fast for her and grabbed her arm lightly, not aware of the bruises she was touching, and pulled her friend into the room shutting the door.

"Dad, this is my roommate Gracie Walker. Gracie this is my dad, and his partner Olivia" 

"Hi Gracie" Elliot said eyeing the girl carefully; she looked ready to bolt from the room. 

"Hi, uh, I really gotta go Maureen, I'll see ya later" she said quickly. As she grabbed two books from her bed and rushed out the door. Elliot and Olivia looked to Maureen who was looking at the door frowning. 

"Sorry bout that, she's acting weird today"

"How'd she get the bruises on her face?" Olivia asked curiously, aware of the look Elliot was sending her to not get Maureen involved in the case. 

"I dunno, she came in at like four this morning and just went to bed. Then just before you called I asked her what happened and she said she got in a fight at a party."

"A party on a Tuesday night?" Elliot asked skeptically. 

"Dad this is college, there are parties all the time. There are probably even some right now. Anyways, do you guys want to go now? I know this great little restaurant that has food form like six different countries"

"Sure" was the simultaneous reply. They walked outside and went towards Elliot's car. Olivia slowed a bit to put some distance between her and the other two while she made a phone call to Cragen. 

"Captain? We need Munch and Finn down here, we found the victim again, but she's Elliot's daughter's roommate. I think the more of us the better for this case. I have a hunch that the University Rapist is back, and there's going to be more rapes very, very soon"

TBC….

.·˙·­._. ·˙·­.pLeAsE rEvIeW .·˙·­._. ·˙·­.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: (oops forgot it in the first chapter) Anything that is recognisably Law and Order SVU stuff is not mine, everything else is purely a product of my imagination. That about covers it… read and enjoy! Reviews are welcomed and greatly appreciated!  
  
  
****

**Small** **World**

  
  
At the restaurant, Maureen had suggested, the group of three were seated in a booth by a large window overlooking a park. 

"So what's your roommate taking in school?" Elliot asked trying to make conversation and get all the information he could without his daughter becoming suspicious.

"She's doing forensic science and criminology," Maureen said as she scanned over the menu. 

"Tough work load" Olivia commented as she took of a sip of the water the waiter had brought as soon as they were seated.

"Yeah, she's always studying, she even brought books home this past weekend when she went home"  

"Why'd she go home?" Elliot said casually as he pretended to figure out what to order.

"She felt homesick I guess, she was going to surprise her family, so she didn't tell them she was coming… I should ask her how that went" Maureen looked up thoughtfully. "So enough about my roommate, what are you guys going to get?" Any talk about Gracie Walker was abandoned and Maureen launched into a series of stories about her teachers, classes and other friends.

As Elliot and Olivia walked Maureen to the entrance of her residence, Maureen looked at her watch and groaned. 

"Man I forgot that I have a group project to work on in like five minutes, but I have to give Gracie her book back," she said sighing loudly. She pulled the book form her bag.

"S'ok, we can take it up to her if you like" Elliot suggested kindly.

"Could you?" Elliot nodded and took the book form his eldest child's hands. "Thanks dad you're the best" and with that she gave him a hug and said goodbye to Olivia, before running off to the library.

"Smooth" Olivia smirked.

"I thought so," he stated.

Knocking on the door of Maureen's room, Elliot and Olivia stood waiting for Gracie to answer. According to Maureen she would be in there probably studying at the moment. The sound of a lock unlocking made each detective stand up straighter. Again upon seeing the two police officers, Gracie's eyes widened and she tried to shut the door. Elliot put his foot in the way and pushed back gently with his hand so not to make the door swing back and hit the girl in the face.

"We just want to talk Gracie," Olivia said softly, as Elliot and she entered the room, shutting the door behind them.

"Yeah well I don't want to, so please leave" She said her voice wavering. "Why are you here?"

"Returning your book to you" Elliot said holding it out. Gracie cautiously moved forward and took it, throwing it on the bed.

"So why'd you run out on us this morning?" Olivia wanted to know.

"Get out" Gracie tried again.

"Not until you tell us what we need to know" Elliot began. "From the little that you did tell us this morning, it sounds like there is a specific serial rapist that has started taking women again, and we need your help to find him before he does it again, okay?" Elliot hated guilting victims into helping them but it was their only chance of catching the bad guy before one of the victims ended up dead. Gracie was debating in her head whether or not to make them leave or help them. She would hate for another person to go through what she did but she was so ashamed of what had happened that she didn't want tot talk about it.

"Okay" the teenager said uncertainly. 

"You'll talk to us?" Olivia asked making no effort to hide the surprise in her voice. Gracie nodded apprehensively.   

"You have time to do it now?" Elliot asked hopefully. The teen nodded again and Elliot inwardly commended her for her bravery. He was relieved she was going to help them; he would hate to not be able to stop the man who was doing this. The sooner they caught the rapist the better.

"So Maureen said that you were going home this weekend to visit your family?" 

"It was supposed to be a surprise," Gracie said quietly, from her spot on the edge of her bed. Olivia sat on Maureen's bed across from her, while Elliot opted for a desk chair. Olivia opened her mouth to speak again but shut it quickly when Gracie continued,

"I was leaving on Friday night, after all my classes and when I was walking in the Train Station parking lot, where my cab dropped me off, someone grabbed me from behind and put a cloth with something on it over my face… next thing I knew I-I was tied up in a basement or something." She took a deep breath, and nervously ran a hand through her hair.

"So you never made it home?" Olivia asked carefully. They had to move slowly with Gracie or she may close up and refuse to further talk to them.

"Guess not" Gracie said.

"So were you in that basement, from Friday night until Tuesday?" Elliot asked looking at the pictures on his daughter's desk of friends and surprisingly of their whole family.

"Yes" Elliot and Olivia both inwardly sighed sadly. Three and a half days of being raped was a lot to go through.

"Do you remember any specific sounds or smells or anything at all about where you may have been?" 

"I could hear the university football game"

"What do you mean?" Olivia leaned forward.

"I could hear cheering and people chanting the teams' names and stuff" 

"So you must have been pretty close then?" 

"I guess, I don't know" she had tears welling up in her eyes. 

"Anything else you recall?" 

"Coffee. I could smell coffee," She said still not meeting the detective's eyes.

"A coffee shop possibly?"

"I don't know I wasn't exactly conscious when they took me there, and they knocked me out I guess before I was dumped in the park."

"You said 'they'… was there more than one?" Elliot questioned.

"Uh, yeah, there were two of them"

"Did you happen to see their faces?" Olivia was praying that she had.

"No they wore masks every time they came down and… and.." Gracie's voice trailed off and she began to fidget with her comforter.

"Did both of them rape you?" Olivia asked bluntly. She hated having to make the victims remember things like this but they had to know whether it was one or two people that they should be looking for.

"Yes"

"Did either man say anything to you or each other that may help us identify them?" Gracie hesitated and started cracking her knuckles.

"You know, I'm really tired, I think you should go now," she said quickly. She stood up and both detectives stood up with her.

"You know who they are." Elliot surmised.

"No-"

"You can tell us, they can't hurt you anymore"

"You don't know that!" Gracie yelled, surprising the adults.

"Just tell us who it was" Elliot said, his voice softer this time. "We can make sure they don't do this again" Gracie regarded the two of them carefully, debating whether or not to tell them what she knew.

"I can't," she said in a small voice.

"Please" Olivia pleaded. 

"No he said if he found out then he'd kill me, my family and my friends" Her fear filled voice wavered and a tear rolled down her cheek. Gracie quickly brushed it away.

"How is he going to know?" Elliot pointed out. "He won't know until we catch him, the only people who will know are the police… the good guys" he raised his eyebrows and looked at her as if saying 'what have you got to lose'.

"Exactly, the only people who will know are the police" Gracie said barley audibly. Had they not been listening, waiting for an answer they would have never heard it.

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked, a bad feeling growing in her gut. She and Elliot as well, already knew the answer.

"One of them was a cop," Gracie said, more tears sliding down her face.

TBC…

Thanks for the great reviews on the first chapter!! 


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note: Sorry for the extremely long wait. I sorta lost interest in the story and real life got in the way, so I wont make any promises on when the next part will be up, but I know it wont be as long a wait as it was for this chapter. Thanks for reading - I really, truly appreciate the reviews I have gotten so far!

Oh and I mention a 'reading week' in the chapter… it's basically a week long break sorta like a spring break or something… I have them here at my university (in Canada) but I don't know if that's what they are called in the U.S. so please forgive me if it's wrong. And an RA is a residence assistant (dunno if its only a Canadian thing again, forgive my ignorance)

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**Small****World**

"A cop?"

"Are you sure?" Were Olivia and Elliot's simultaneous responses. Gracie nodded a little looking extremely uncomfortable under their incredulous stares.

"It could have been someone dressed as a cop," Olivia said quietly to Elliot. Gracie heard her and spoke up,

"No it really was a cop, I'd recognize that voice anywhere."

"What? From where?"

"Some cops came to talk to my forensics class about crime scenes and he was one of them"

"Do you think he was stalking you?" Olivia asked. They were finally getting somewhere with Gracie, and would continue to ask questions until the girl closed up again.

"Whenever he would…." She trailed off shakily, before continuing almost inaudibly. "He would say how they had been watching me for a while"

"Did you ever see any badge number or anything to identify him?" Olivia said making a mental note to find out who had spoken to her class.

"No"

"Is there anything else at all that you remember about where you were kept?" Olivia asked after jotting down a couple things on her ever-present pad of paper.  Gracie shook her head wringing her hands together absentmindedly.

"Okay, then we'll get going. Here's my card. Call if you think of something else or need anything" Elliot said wanting to be long gone from there when Maureen got back. He didn't want her to get involved in this. As the two detectives went for the door, Gracie spoke up.

"Detective Stabler…" Elliot turned around along with Olivia.

"Yes?"

"Um, is there any way you could get Maureen to go home for a while?" Elliot was confused.

"Why?"

"My wallet was taken by, um, the cop, and I had this address on one of my ID's." Gracie didn't have to say why she wanted her roommate gone for the time being. They understood. If her attackers were going to be paying a visit in the near future Gracie didn't want Maureen to get hurt too.

"If they know where you live, you shouldn't stay here either you know," Elliot said frowning. Just the thought of his daughter being hurt, like the girl before him, made his skin crawl. If anything happened to Maureen, or any of his kids for that matter, he didn't know if he could stop himself from killing who ever did it.

"I'll be fine"

"You could go home for a while, I know that you guys have a reading week next week, you could go visit your family." Gracie visibly stiffened. She was obviously not keen on the idea of explaining what happened to her parents.

"You should tell them," Olivia said in a soft voice.

"Yeah and be locked in the house for the rest of my life. My parents are too protective as it is, if they knew that…" her eyes welled up with tears but she refused to let them fall. "If they knew about what happened, they would freak."

"You should really find somewhere else to stay for a while and you need to tell someone Gracie" Olivia said. "You can't keep this all to yourself"

"Yes I can, now if you'll excuse me I have a lot of studying to catch up on" she said moving to sit at her desk, her back to the detectives. They both knew they had been lucky to get as much information out of the girl as they did before she clammed up. With heavy hearts the detectives left the room and headed to the stairs to outside, not noticing the tall figure dressed casually, peering around the corner of the hallway at them.

Dark eyes narrowed malevolently, and the man slipped around the corner and stood at the door recently exited by the police. He reached into his jacket grasping the cool metal of his 9mm gun, holding it within the shadows of his coat. He glanced around making sure no one saw him as he pulled the weapon out and turned the doorknob gently, making no sound at all. He opened the door a crack and could see Gracie sitting at her desk, the radio playing beside her. He entered the room and every so stealthily shut the door. He pointed the gun at her and cleared his throat.

"Nice room" his gruff voice commented. Gracie shot out her seat and spun around her eyes huge as saucers. She opened her mouth to scream but the man stepped forward in the small space and held the gun less than a foot from her head.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Gracie" she felt sick at the tone in his voice as he spoke her name. Tears trickled down her face as the man grabbed her by the arm and threw her on to her bed. She scrambled to get away but he grabbed her straddling her waist so she was trapped on her back. Holding the gun to her temple he leaned down and kissed her lips roughly. Seizing the opportunity Gracie bit his lip as hard as she could making it bleed. Instead of getting off her like she'd hoped, her attacker brought the butt of the gun down, violently connecting, with a sickening crack to her skull. Hearing the jingling of a belt buckle, Gracie welcomed the sweet unconsciousness that threatened to overcome her as the last of her tears combined with blood and dripped onto the bed.

Maureen called goodbye to her friends she had worked with, as she entered her residence building. She took a detour to the mailroom, and wasn't surprised that there was no mail for her. There never was. She also walked down the hall to the laundry room to see if there were any washing machines free for her to use. Her clean clothes supply was getting critically low, and it was at least another four days until she could go home and beg her mom to do it for her. Pleased to see the laundry room empty, she hurried to the stairs, in hopes that she could get her laundry together quickly. As she reached her room, she raised her eyebrows at the loud rock music blasting from behind the door. Gracie was never one to play music loudly, and if she did it was never _that_loud. She turned the doorknob only to find the door locked. She tried knocking but received no answer. _She's probably gone deaf from the music_, Maureen mused as she fished around her purse for her key. Finally finding it, she unlocked the door and pushed it open with her hip as she concentrated on finding a piece of gum in her bag. She kicked the door shut and walked to her desk by her bed still not looking up, only stopping when an unusual smell greeted her nostrils. She looked up from her bag and turned around.

If there was one thing in her whole life that she would never forget, it was the sight before her. Maureen tried to scream but her voice wouldn't work. Her legs, like jello, collapsed under her and she sank to the floor by her bed.

"Oh my god" she whispered. She could feel her heart thudding in her chest and the bile rising in her throat. She pushed it down and forced herself, to get up. She took a step forward.

"Gracie?" her voice cracked as her tears trailed wet lines down her cheeks. "Gracie?" she tried a little bit louder. A sob escaped her and Maureen was out the door running to her RA's door, pounding on it hysterically. A tired looking third year student answered it after a few seconds.

"What?" he asked, puckering his brow at the sight before him. "Hey are you okay?"

"My roommate" Maureen pointed to her room "please, I-I- found her, oh god, please!" Maureen got out before grabbing his hand pulling him with her. Pushing the door open, the RA stepped into the room, and just about threw up, he looked away and grabbed the phone on the dresser, before coming back into the hall and closing the door. Maureen began pacing, her hands in her hair, trying to control her breathing, She vaguely heard the guy on the phone for an ambulance. Suddenly feeling very nauseous, she leaned against the wall and sunk to the floor pulling her knees to her chest. What the hell had happened in the few hours she had been gone?

No more than fifteen minutes later police and paramedics arrived in front of the residence. Elliot and Olivia having heard the situation over their police radios in the car turned around from leaving their hotel and raced to the university. Both had awful feelings, of what had happened, deep in the pits of their stomachs. They followed the paramedics up to Maureen and Gracie's floor and Elliot, spying his daughter still sitting along the wall a bit down the hall from her own room, hurried to her. Olivia followed him closely and the two kneeled down to her level.

"Maureen sweetie, what happened?" Elliot said worriedly. Upon hearing her father's voice, Maureen looked up and started crying all over again. Her face was red and tearstained

"What happened?" He said again, rubbing her shoulder soothingly and wiping some of her tears away. This only made her cry harder.

"Gracie" was all she managed to get out. Elliot and Olivia looked at each other and then towards the room.

"Sweetheart, stay here okay? I'll be back in a couple minutes," Elliot said placing a kiss on her head before getting up and going to see what had happened.

Elliot and Olivia entered the room holding up their badges. The paramedics hadn't covered the body yet, and what the two detectives saw was worse than anything they had ever seen in their careers as detectives.

"My god" Elliot choked out. Olivia averted her eyes, not sure if she could stay in the room much longer.

What they saw was the petit body that had talked to them just a few hours before, lying on the bed, her throat slit, and torso gutted for lack of a better word. Blood was splattered on the walls near the bed and the once yellow comforter on the bed was solid red. What was supposed to inside, was all over the bed. But the saddest thing about the sight was the blank green eyes staring up at the ceiling begging, pleading for help, for someone to save her from her hell.

But it was obvious no one had come.

  
  


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- The next part will come soon, I have finally got how the story will go all set out in my head 

Please review. ;)


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